The Delta button allows you to see and hear the frequencies being removed. The Sharpness and Selectivity controls work together to affect the narrowness of the frequency cuts, so you can be specific about affecting certain frequencies without affecting adjacent areas in the spectrum, and to establish a threshold in terms of how prominent a problem frequency needs to be before processing occurs. So when you boost a frequency in the display, you’re actually telling the software to reduce resonances more in that area of the spectrum, sort of like an inverted EQ. The part of the spectrum to be processed is determined by low-pass, high-pass and three band filters.

Node controls appear on the left whenever one is clicked. An online manual is accessible under the settings icon. The interface is clean and relatively self-explanatory. The plugin offers 2x and 4x oversampling and three levels of resolution “if your CPU can handle it”. The effect is similar to the idea of De-essing, but the underlying algorithms use a spectral processor that reacts to resonant frequencies while reducing or eliminating artifacts such as pre-ring and summing problems found in other dynamic EQs. Interface and Controlsīilled as a time-saving tool, soothe is a dynamic equalizer with self-adjusting bands that analyzes in real time and adjusts frequency reduction based on the input.

Originally designed as a vocal processor, it’s usefulness is also obvious when applied to things like acoustic guitar, saturated synth tracks, sub mixes, or the master bus. Their first entry in the audio plugin market is soothe, “a dynamic resonance suppressor for mid and high frequencies”. One new company that looks promising is oeksoundbased in Helsinki and founded by signal processing and sound engineer, Olli Erik Keskinen. But the beauty of software is that the only real cost of production is time and that opens the door to innovation, which is particularly rampant in the iOS market (see my article: 10 Weird iOS Audio Apps for Music Production). And sometimes, the product is so esoteric it’s commercially unviable. Sometimes reacting to their own audio needs, those of colleagues or what they intuitively perceive as something needed. They’re free to pursue any direction they see fit. These software artists are unencumbered by the demands of market research data or budgetary constraints.

I’m an unabashed software junkie and always curious to try applications by startups and new developers.

Oeksound soothe download